Contact: The Aztecs and the Spaniards
Contact: The Aztecs and the SpaniardsThe Spaniards landed on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico in 1519, where they where amazed to find the advanced society of the Aztecs. The Aztec Empire stretched along the Valley of Mexico, and Tenochititlan was the capital. The Aztecs were a powerful tribe; they were always conquering many other small tribes. They built amazing cities and had a powerful army. The expansion of the Aztecs, however, ended when the Spanish took over. The Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in 1521, led by Hernando Cortes, was a victory that was a big deal for all European settlers. After the Spanish Conquest, there appeared to be two major disadvantages for the Aztecs because of contact with the Spaniards. The first was the huge reduction in the size of the Aztec population because o
On the other hand there were many advantages of the Spaniards contact with the Aztecs. The Europeans acquired from the Aztecs many now a-day important food items like corn, beans, tomatoes and potatoes. The Europeans also acquired from the Aztecs now a-day necessities like coffee and sugar, and also tobacco. "Products brought from the new world to Europe significantly improved the nutritional value of the European diet, which until then had been mostly grain-based. Another thing that happened after they conquered the Aztec Empire that could be considered a disadvantage to the Spaniards was that news spread rapidly back to Europe and started a lot of competition and revolts among the European communities. The second disadvantage was a long and very slow process of having to change from their way of living to European ways of living. The Spaniards had the so-called "gruesome advantage" of disease because they carried many European illnesses that the Aztecs were not immune (resistant) to. These minor advantages were that the Europeans introduced new technologies, crops like grains and fruits and domestic animals like horses, sheep, cattle and pigs to the Aztecs and the Aztecs could add these new things into their own culture even though they where under Spanish ruling. Unfortunetly, the sad truth is that no matter how many times people debate about this, the fact is that the Spaniards did conquer the Aztecs. "Almost all of Aztec culture was carelessly destroyed during this Spanish Conquest and whether Western civilization is richer or poorer, this victory has had lasting effects for both Native and European people". f a lot warfare and especially because of disease. There were some minor advantages for the Aztecs from the contact but the Spaniards received the great majority of the benefits of conquering the Aztec Empire. " In the long run this change in the European diet caused a significant increase in population because there weren't as many deaths due to malnutrition. It is estimated that half of the Aztecs died of now a-day minor diseases like small pox and measles.
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